Commercial Radio & Audio (CRA) will expand its radio surveys year on year and include more regional markets in 2024, as the radio industry body looks to deepen its understanding of regional and remote communities and their listening habits.

The Regional Radio Audience Measurement Survey (RRAMS) schedule, conducted on behalf of CRA by Xtra Insights, will increase to 22 markets this year, up from 20 in 2023, and will provide listening and listener insights on 64 commercial regional radio stations and over 26 ABC stations.

"We have been conducting regional radio surveys for a decade now, and we are always keen to keep expanding our research and improve the research methodology," said CRA CEO Ford Ennals.

In the decade since the RRAMS were introduced, 177 surveys have been completed, representing the listening habits of 6.6 million Australians aged 10 and over. New survey methods will be introduced in 2024 by Xtra Insights, including online survey sampling in eight markets.

Xtra Insights Managing Director, Paul Amos, said: "Xtra Insights uses Computer Assisted Telephone Interviewing to conduct surveys. This year, we will launch online survey sampling in eight markets. In 2023, 20 surveys were completed in regional Australia, representing 52 commercial stations. With 16,800 successful interviews the listening habits of 2.9 million Australians aged 10 and over were revealed."

The 2024 Survey Schedule includes markets in NSW, Queensland, Western Australia, Victoria, South Australia, Northern Territory, and Tasmania. The markets of the Gold Coast, Canberra, and Newcastle are carried out by GfK Metropolitan Radio Measurement, which also oversees the eight surveys of the five major metro markets annually.